3D Hobby Shop Velox VR-1__The Breed Improves Again

Time moves fast in the world of 3D airframe development. The list of obsolete airframes from just the past few years is very long, though not always distinguised. It wasn't long ago it was unthinkable that the watershed Extra SHP would ever need anything but maybe a color scheme change every few years to keep every shipment selling out in a few weeks, but even that plane is currently being updated and improved.

The Velox Revolution came out not too much longer after the SHP, but it was such a quantum leap in performance over anything we had then seen, we were all sort of dumbstruck. We figured this was going to be the limit, but that's always a fast moving target. While the original Velox was a ground breaking plane, so much has been learned since that it would definitely benefit from an update, and that's where the 3DHS Velox VR1 comes into play.

Worth noting is that the Velox wasn't replaced. It was already so good that all it needed was an updating based off what has been learned since it's introduction. Improving what we already have seems to be a better bet than constantly throwing out new planes that may or may not work.

We knew the Velox was good, but after extensive testing, and a year's worth of development knowledge, designer Scott Stoops knew exactly what he wanted to do to make it better. I think what was learned in the 70" programs has been put to work on the smaller planes, and this has shown up in the upcoming improvements to the SHP, the replacement for the Extra SR, and definitely in the new VR1.

Improvements To the Kit
Improvement in the kit include 3D Hobby Shop's new bomb proof carbon landing gear block assembly. A composite plate is bonded to a carbon piece that is supported by two formers, and carbon rods on either side running through both.

My VR1 gear leg got caught in a rip in our runway material and the plane was instantly yanked from about 10 mph to zero, by the landing gear. The structure is so solid that it didn't even wrinkle the covering. I don't think you could pull one apart without shredding the airplane.

The landing gear leg itself is the same one used on the 3DHS 47" Velox Revolution V2 model,  47"Edge 540 and 46" Viper. It is a very stout, well made single piece unit. The older Revolution V1 gear were two pieces that would get spongy after a few solid hits, but the new gear is rock solid. You can still break it if you hit just right, and hard enough, but the ones I've had have absorbed an unreasonable amount of abuse while still staying very solid.

Inside, the rudder servo tray has been moved further forward in what appears to be a change that will make the plane easier to balance with 3s batteries. My VR1 with with a Thunder Power 3s 2250 30C Pro Power battery and Extreme Flight Torque 2814 balances with the pack right about in the middle of the tray, so that's perfect.

Outside of that, the only obvious difference in the build is the use of high quality Ultracote covering. The shine and luster of the VR1 is the best I've seen on these planes yet. The covering material was also drum tight and required nothing in the way of touch up. All my 3DHS planes have been good in this respect, but the VR1 came out of the box without a single wrinkle or loose piece of covering. A nice touch is the small roll of red replacement covering for repairs. I hope I don't stick a hole in my VR1, but I'll be set if I do.

I also like the new SFGs. I like SFGs anyway. I've gotten so used to seeing them that a plane looks naked without them. The VR1 models are more elegant looking than the ones used on the Revolution. Their edges are more rounded and the whole plane appears softer and less pointy around the edges. Visually it is a nice improvement. They have more area than the previous versions without being gawdy, cartoon-looking devices. They also don't hang down any further where they would be more venerable to ground strikes.

Larger SFGs will give more lift and stability in knife edge flight, and also help more in eliminating harrier wing rock. Not being an engineer, I can't swear they will be an aerodynamic improvement over the old ones, but with more area it makes sense they would do their job better.

One undesirable side effect of taller SFGs is they tend to make the plane weather vane and try to turn itself into a crosswind. These new SFGs are not any more tall. They just have more area, so they work better without a cross wind  negatively effecting the airplane nearly as much as a tall SFG does.

Since 3D hobby Shop's hardware packages are already the industry standard, there was no need to improve on any of that. If you have built a 3DHS plane, you know exactly what I mean, and it is always nice to work with hardware you are familiar with, not to mention have spares of. You never have to second guess any of this stuff. Just put it on the way the instructions call for and it works.

The Bad
I got a bit spoiled with the tri color wheel pants of my Vypers and the multiple color with swoopy designs SFGs of my 55" Extra SC, so the solid red on the VR1s pants and SFGs are a little bland by comparison. The VR1 is such an attractive plane that this isn't really a big deal.

 I just wanted something to complain about.



The Build
After building three Vypers on my own, I wasn't expecting the VR1 to be any more difficult, and it wasn't. This was the first airfoiled stab plane I've built without Jim's help, and I only had one or two small gaffs. The flat slab stab on the Vyper fits really snug, so you just slide it in and run CA in the joints. The VR1 has an airfoiled stab, and on this one I ran the CA in and it kept going in and going it, so I thought that this was really going to make a good joint. Then I discovered it had run out the other side, down the other stab, and now both my shoes were glued to the floor! Thankfully I've got some really good debond and the plane cleaned up pretty nice. No problem.

With my big, dumb thumbs, larger things are easier to work on, so the VR1's cavernous radio compartment made gear installation much easier. The radio installation did take a bit of thinking because I worry so much about wires getting caught in the rudder servo arms. On the bulkhead that supports the front of the rudder tray, there is a little hole on each side I ran the wires through and it tucks it all away really nicely. It's kind of a pain to get the wing off the way I set it up, but it fits in the car really nice and I like to leave them on anyway.

I really like 3DHS' phenolic control horns. The control surfaces are pre-slotted, and all you do is test fit the control horns to make sure they slide all the way in, then remove, fill the slot with thick CA and smear some on the horn, then jam it back in until it bottoms out.... and you're done.

Have a paper towel ready in case too much CA runs out. A little bit is ok because it will make a nice fillet, but you don't want too much because it looks kinda ugly. Like this you don't have to worry about getting the hole in the arm centered over the hinge line. That part is already done because the slots are cut right. The way these horns are designed, you just about can't get them wrong, which makes the build all the more fun and easy.

Aside from being careful not to run glue everywhere installing the stab, this was a very standard build with no surprises. the first one of anything you build is always the most complicated and likely to go wrong, but the VR1 was very close to being a no brainer. With my limited building skills that means the VR1 gets a very solid endorsement.

Your best bet is going to be to follow the instructions and set up in the manual completely to the letter. Scott and Ben have built enough of these planes that they have the process figured out and the manual will take you down the right road to putting a perfect build together. Set up is a very personal thing, and while I tweek that on the first example every new type of 3DHS plane I get, I always seem to end up exactly where the manual says. That means, if nothing else, it's the perfect place to start.

FLYING

I had a lot of experience with the original Velox Revolution, so I was sort of expecting the VR1 to be very similar. It is, but there are some marked differences.

Right away I was impressed with how much smoother and pitch stable the VR1 is over the older Revolution. The older Velox was always a bit of a hair on fire kind of plane because it was capable of so much violence , and while the VR1 has given up just a bit of that, it was too much anyway. It was a good trade to get the smoothness and controllability the longer tail moment provides.

As of this writing I only have a handful of flights on the plane, so as I dial in my CG and mixes, the VR1 is only going to get better. I don't expect to get more comfortable with the plane, though, because right from the beginning it was so similar to the Revolution and the Extra SR that I knew exactly what I had.

Most apparent is how much more stable the VR1 is in pitch mode. With the revolution you had to be gentle flying it at high speed on high rates because it was so responsive to the elevator, but the VR1 locks in very nicely and grooves almost as well as an Extra SR. In fact, it is quite similar, and I expect this to get better as I get my throws and CG dialed in more perfectly.

The only weakness I ever found in the old Revolution was that it was difficult to fly at high speed on high rates, but what else would you expect from a plane that is so agile that it can almost chew it's own tail off? Of course, I fly the old school way of using high rates all the time, because the first 15 years that  I was  flying RC, we didn't have dual rates. Since we weren't flying 3D, we also didn't need them. As a result I got used to keeping it on high rates all the time.

With the VR1, I am much more comfortable flying on high rates all the time, mostly because it is so much smoother of an airplane. I am sure this is because the VR1 has a longer tail moment, but the big surprise is that this doesn't compromise the pitch authority or tumbling ability to a noticeable degree.

With the revolution you just dumped the sticks in the corner and the plane would tumble itself into a blurr. The VR1 is a much more precise airplane, though, so you need to get your sequence and timing more correct. The Revolution is still a bit wilder and easier to tumble, but the VR1 is only a little more work. The VR1 will still just about turn itself inside out when you ask it to, yet remain smooth and stable.

Don't ask me how Scott lengthened the tail without compromising much of the VR1's pitch authority. This is something I haven't figured out yet. Since 3DHS and Scott aren't saying much about what was done aerodynamically, I'm suspecting there was voodoo or mojo involved.

The VR1 does about everything just like the Revolution, only smoother. My KE mixes were exactly the same, but point and slow rolls were easier to get right because the pitch was more locked in with the longer tail.

One place I found big improvement was in harrier and elevator maneuver flight. If you are sloppy you can still get a little rock, but it is almost nothing and almost right up there with the 3DHS Edge 540. On 3s packs the VR1 is so floaty it is almost like an SHP, only it harriers nearly as well as an Edge, so flying this plane is a righteous experience.

In general, the VR1 is still a very advanced airplane, but it is smoother, easier, and more precise to fly than it's predecessor. It may give up just a little in super wild tumbling, but the Revolution was so violent in this respect that sort of flying was extremely hard on the airframe anyway, and after awhile I just got over that sort of wild thing and prefer to work on low level 3D, which I think the VR1 is better at.

The new VR1 being so stable and floaty make it a very easy step up from the SHP, which with the SR also being out of production is a good thing. SHP pilots still have a really good plane to move up into that isn't a frightening leap. The VR1 is a better flying, better performing plane that is not really any more difficult, but more capable than the SHP. It's just a bonus that every piece of equipment they have in their SHP will drop right into a VR1 and keep working flawlessly.

NAIL

It's is always sad when a beloved airframe goes out of production, but the VR1 is so much better flying of an airplane than the Revolution from a smoothness and precision viewpoint that I will never miss having a Revolution.

Never thought I would say that, but time sure moves fast, especially when you're having this much fun.

EQUIPMENT

Motor

As always, nothing but Extreme Flight Torque. Lately we have been wringing out our 2818 motors with all the Vyper projects, but for the VR1 we went with the larger 2814.  The longer tail moment of the VR1 needed to be compensated for, so this was to get a little more weight up front to help with the CG.

The VR1 is set up for either the 2818 or the 2814, and the motor mount holes are predrilled with blind nuts installed. You simply bolt the motor to the firewall and that's it. All but one or two of 3DHS planes are designed around the Torque motor, so it makes sense to me not to have to make a bunch of changes just to get something less to work,

We've never run the 2814 on anything but 4s, but the VR1 is a 3s project. I just wanted to try it, and the 2814 is awesome set up this way as well. This motor on the VR1 specs out with an APC 14 X 7E prop, but you have to be careful of throttle management or your run time suffers. The is also the Florida heat to deal with, so I scaled back to an APC 13 X 6.5. It's still big enough to pull good amperage and deliver lots of grunt, and also that all important vectored thrust. We will experiment with the 14 X 7 later, but in the past I didn't like that prop on the 2818 because there was a noticeable lag in throttle response time.

That, and I also use the 13 X 6.5 prop on all my 3s 2818 powered planes. This is just one less size prop I have to keep balanced spares of.

As you can see in the videos, the 2814 on 3s is just about a perfect match for the VR1. I haven't done the math and figured out my Watts per pound, but I prefer my planes to run about 180WPP. With this combo the VR1 seems just about perfect, so I am guessing that we are really close to the 180 WPP range.

ESC

I've simply run out of good things to say about the Extreme Flight Airboss 45 ESC without repeating myself. I could copy and paste something from another of our reports, or you can just take my word for it and do like we do..... run nothing but Airboss ESCs.

We have 100% dead solid perfect reliability with the Airboss, and perfectly linear throttle response that is so critical for good 3D performance and control. I plug it in, forget about it, and fly the crap out of it. Once I button up the cowling, I never think about my Airboss ESC until the plane is worn out, and then I just move it to another and another.

I don't want my ESC to sing, and I don't want my ESC to dance. I just want it to work, and that's why there's an Airboss ESC in every plane I own.

Batteries

Well, what else? It was always going to be Thunder Power, wasn't it? I have recently converted my whole 40" and 47" fleet from 4s to 3s batteries, and the right size seems to be the Thunder Power 3s 2250 30 Pro Power packs.

These packs have made an monumental difference in my flying and set up. Previously I refused to use 3s power because it simply wasn't enough for me, but with the Pro Power's blistering 30c rating, now a 3s pack has enough grunt to satisfy me.

This has showed up greatly in my flying because with 3s power I can fly a lighter plane with a much bigger prop than I could on 4s, which gives me the holy grail of much more available vectored thrust, and thus, more control for post stall 3D maneuvering.

4s is also simply too much power to be able to control easily. 3s power with the Pro Power packs is just about right for me.

Another nice benefit of the Pro Power packs is they can be charged up to 5c. This means you can crank up to 10 amps of current through these babies and not hurt them. I am using an older Thunder Power 610C charger that will put 8 amps into these packs, Since it takes about 18 minutes to charge one of these 2250 30C packs, I think that's fast enough. After a flight, by the time you check the plane over,  relax a bit,  get something to drink and hang out with the guys, your pack is about done. You could actually go to the field with a single pack and fly almost as often as you wanted to.

My friends at Thunder Power are telling me they have hammered these batteries in testing, charging at this rate and getting up to 400 cycles on a pack before they started to taper off in power. This means these batteries should last roughly about twice as long as most other packs.

So, you really only need one or two packs and they live roughly twice as long. Sure doesn't make sense to me to buy cheap packs when you can have all of that.

Battery Tray

With the Airboss mounted on the outside of the motor box, all the wiring is outside of the battery compartment. This makes changing out the battery a snap because the only thing that can get in the way is the retention strap. I leave that a little long so I can hold it out of the way and there is no fiddling or struggling to get the battery past a rat's next of wires and such. This makes a clean installation that's easy to work on and a simpler operation all the way around.

Receiver

With the rudder servo tray moved forward on the VR1, you have to be careful routing the aileron wires because you sure don't any of those to get fouled u[ in the servo arm. This was just a simple matter of running the wires as you see here. Being crippled with obsession compulsion, I find it's nice to have a clean installation so easy to achieve without a lot of fussing around.

The Futaba FAAST receiver is velcroed in as you see, and the supports around the battery tray make a nice place to mount the antenna tubes so they are out of the way...invisible, almost. I'm very pleased with how this installation came out. It's beautiful in it's simplicity, which I admire.

SET UP

Ailerons

Again, so simple it is hardly worth commenting on, except to note simple things are much less likely to fail and much more likely to work properly and reliably.

Elevator

Again, perfection in simplicity. I took the extra step of sliding a carbon tube over the elevator pushrod and CAing it into place. You don't need it. I just wanted it to look cool, and it does.

Rudder

Check the photo above for how the pull-pull cables look at the servo end. Below is how the come out of the pre cut slots in the fuselage sides and run back to the rudder control horn.

Usually I like to run the pull wire end inside the threaded piece and then twist and solder it. This makes a much neater looking deal, but this time I chose not to work that hard and used the crimp pieces exactly like the manual calls for.  I covered the whole mess up with a piece of heat shrink and it looks acceptably neat this way. This is so much less work that I think I will start doing them all this way.

Night Venom Update.

 I finally got a chance to fly my new green night Vyper and it is as solid as the other two I built. I took my sweet time getting everything perfect on it and I'm very pleased with how it came out. I usually can't build one that meets my unreasonable standards, but this time I came close enough.

The green is absolutely beautiful in the air. The green (on top) and blue (on bottom) seems to be the brightest of the colors available (except white, which is blinding), and like this it is extremely easy to see and keep good orientation. Since the first night Vyper, I added a strip along the training edge of the wing, and that really make the profile stand out. There's never any question which way it's going.

Very, very pleased with this one, but unfortunately it goes into backup service until I need it. This is actually good because now I can get really crazy with the first night Vyper!

We also shot a sunset video with my yellow Vyper a few weeks ago, but have just now gotten around to editing it.. The flying isn't spectacular or anything, but the sunset and the vibe is pretty cool.

Oh, while we're having Vyper mania, we also went out on a Sunday when the wind was absolutely howling and it was really too crazy to be flying. I played some interesting wind games with the Vyper, and it's surprisingly good in the wind, probably the best of all the 46-47" planes I've owned.

Riding The Edge On 3s

We haven't had a chance to shoot any new Edge video, but for those who may have missed it, here's our last time out. It was the first time I had ever flown the plane on 3s instead of the customary 4s, and the wind was really horrific. It's pretty easy to see what a confidence inspiring plane the Edge 540 is.

I've previously written about power systems and why I think 190 watts per pound (WPP) is the best way to go for 3D flying. You can find that on this blog at  Power System Theory And Execution


My mini Slick is 180WPP and so is my 46" Vyper. I recently I switched my 47" SHP over to 3s and 180 WPP and it is so much nicer of a plane that way,  I really did waste my first two years flying SHPs by overpowering them and not getting the benefit of their sublimely docile nature. I've flown all of these planes on 4s, but with more reasonable 3s power and 180 PP, they are so much more pilot friendly that ever before. It is like rediscovering them all over again.

My best plane is the 47" Edge 540. The Vyper is my fav, but the Edge brings out the best part of my 3D game. Going to 3s on the Edge was shocking because previously I had never before flown an airplane I have had so much confidence in. There was no way for me to believe the Edge could be even better than it already was, but the quantum leap was startling.

So far these are my only three flight with the edge on 3s, but you can bet there's going to be plenty more.

3

Vyper Strikes III: Night Venom

Revisited And Remixed

A lot of miles have passed between my Vypers and myself. I have learned so much from these planes, and on every level too. I think I am flying better, and I know I am building better, but more on that later.

While the Vyper kit is a joy to assemble, the plane is still all about the flying. The Vyper is so different that at first I thought it didn't 3D as well as planes like the Extra and Edge, but it does. It just takes a different technique. You have to hold the nose higher and use more throttle, but like this she will drop right into post stall flight pretty effortlessly.

What sets the Vyper apart from any other plane I know of is it's ability to go back and forth from hardcore 3D and high speed precision.  For a more detailed report on the Vyper's flying, check the earlier article on this blog titled The Vyper Strikes, Part II

Ken has been so busy with his business and SEFF that we haven't been able to shoot any Vyper video. I found a few clips I had previously edited out and overlooked, so I repackaged the Vyper videos, changed the tunes, etc. I think this is a better representation of what the plane is capable of, at least in my incapable hands.

Assembly

This isn't going to be a build section. It's just a few notes about how smoothly the Vyper goes together. Many of you know I usually have Jim Demeritte do the assembly of my airframes. I do the installation of the power system and radio, but getting the tail lined up and making sure everything is straight is something Jim does a lot better than me. When Jim moved across the state, for one, it sucked he wasn't around to hang out with any more, and for another it also threw a lot of logistical problems at us for getting planes built and delivered.

So, I knew at the very least I was going to have to build a few on my own.

I know I can build a model airplane reasonably well, but over the years I have just run out of patience for aggravating projects. That's why I started having Jim do them, but a 3DHS plane is so nice that it's actually fun to put one together. Everything fits and goes together exactly the way it is supposed to. The only part that gives me a bit of a problem is measuring the tail to make sure it is on there straight, but I think I have a weird bit of dyslexia when it comes to this. All the lines on the ruler run together. I simply can't see it.

Originally I was not going to build this Vyper myself. I was fitting the servos, motor, ESC and such so it would already be done when I'de get the plane back from Jim, but it went together so well that I decided to finish it myself.

To get around my dyslexia with putting the tail on, I measured the best I could and pinned the stab in place. I'de measure it over and over, and I'de even walk away from it for a few hours. Eventually when I could get the same measurement three times in a row I glued it in. Pinned into place the stab can't move, and it doesn't get any easier than running some CA into the joints.

Like I say, I wasn't going to build this plane, but when I opened the box and everything is was so nice, I couldn't resist tearing into it. Since building the yellow Vyper I've built two more, one green for day and one green for night. As of this writing, the green day Vyper flies perfectly (as does the yellow), but I am waiting for servos to finish the green night Vyper.

Mostly when I build I stress out about alignment, but with these two flying so perfectly it proves that either I can get them right or it doesn't matter if they are off just a little. It's probably a bit of both, but now I've got plenty of confidence to go into the next build with.

Night Flying

I have desperately wanted to try night flying, but both clubs in my area won't allow it. I had tried a little whenever I would visit Sarasota Silent Fliers Club (SSF). Mostly it was my friend (club president) Earnie's Slo Stick, and it was great fun. Earnie dared me to do it with a bad ass 3D plane, so here we are.

I had flown a few friend's foamies at night, but it is not even close to being the same thing. It's just dinking around with foamies. Still it was good because it showed me what I would need for lighting and what kind of pattern would show up best. I ran out of time, money and lights, and was afraid I didn't have enough, but that was far from reality. With the right colors and light pattern, orientation was zero problem.

Of course, I was a bit more than merely concerned going in. I had never done anything like this before except for flying slow foamies in a circle, so 3D at night was really going to be jumping off the deep end. I took off and, naturally, got some altitude, cranked off a few rolls and passes and thought "I got this," and I never really thought about anything more than just flying the plane in my usual fashion.

Get the lighting right and you don't have to change anything....just fly.

When I used to build and cover my own planes from kits, I would cover them solid blue on bottom and yellow on top. I flew them like that for years and that's what I got used to looking it. This provided an orientation that was very much instinctual for me. Which is why I kept covering my planes like that.

The lights swept back into an arrowhead pattern, and we've been looking at those all our lives. We all know instinctively which way an arrow is pointing, so this was a great pattern. I don't have any trouble seeing it and it's very easy to maintain orientation. I didn't hardly even take much time to feel things out. I could see the plane so well that I was comfortable flying just like I do in the day.

The only thing I found that was a bit disconcerting is that the ground is closer than it looks. I found this out in my sunset warm up flight when I could still see the ground, and almost hit it a few times. Then it was just a simple adjustment to pick it up a bit and make sure the plane never slipped below eye level unless it was right in front of me where I'de have a better perspective.

I'm guessing this loss of orientation to the ground has to do with the horizon being dark, and the pilot having nothing for a reference. Maybe this will get better after I get some more night experience, but it still wasn't much of a problem. I just had to make an adjustment or two in my flying, or maybe it was even as simple as just getting used to it. Either way, after a couple of laps around the field I didn't think about it any more.

Landing wasn't much of an issue because the blue lights on bottom makes the whole runway glow.

3D Night flying with a hardcore, full blooded rock-n-roll badass airplane like the Vyper is something you can't really prepare yourself for. No, I don't mean it was hard because it wasn't. The part that shocked me was what a serene, almost spiritual experience it was. I was at ease and at peace almost instantly. There were no other people, cars, trees, buildings.......nothing but me, the Vyper and the sky.

It is impossible to explain what a moving experience it was for me. I grew up flying model planes, and I have spent untold thousands looking for something like this. I just didn't know what it was until now.

Light Installation

I hate complicated things, but I tried to make the light installation as simple as possible. The new green Vyper is a much neater and cleaner installation than  my first effort on the yellow Vyper.  I learned a lot on that plane and carried it forward to this new green Vyper, and that's why you will see that plane here.

In the photo below, you can see the hole I drilled to route the wires to the stab lighting, at the top you can see where I connected to fin to the lighting on top. The top wiring has it's own leads, so the fin is just jump powered off that.

 
Below are the wires which power the wing lighting. Those go into the wing, and I fished them through where they come out of the rib and into the fuse through the same hole as the aileron leads.

And here's the wing lighting wires. I spliced in mini deans connectors so I can remove the wing when I need to. The brown wire running on the floor leads to the lights on the tail. I'm going to secure that once everything else is set.

Everything is all run forward under the battery tray and up to the deans connector. The extra plug sticking up connects to the lighting for the canopy.
 

 
Wires to the tail run down the fuse and come up through a hole in the tail. This is behind where the pull wires cross, and they come up right between them. I kept this wire reasonably tight so no slack would get tangled up in the pull cables...another reason the next night plane is going to be an SHP with the servo in the tail.
 

FINAL NAIL

VYPER ROCKS!

Thanks for making it this far!